There are a lot of interesting food stalls, leaning more gourmet than the farmer's market. It's kinda like the specialty food market that appears in the Hauptbahnhof on Wednesdays, only slightly more upscale and more convenient. In addition to quality raw ingredients, there's a variety of ready to eat prepared foods as well. There's also a restaurant at one end of the hall.

In general, the whole outfit seems to actually want your business (how un-Swiss of them) and all the vendors I talked to did a lot of self-promotion: promoting upcoming events, giving me a detailed history of the Markthalle and its aspirations, asking how I found out about the Markthalle, wishing more people know about the Markthalle, etc. After my initial excitement on finding them, I started to feel a little worried that it wouldn't last long given how few customers I saw both times I visited. So I'm here to help get the word out, simply in the interest of good food.

To peak your interest, here are some of the vendors I've tried so far...

Berg und Tal. First, I love the name. Extra points right from the start. They focus mostly on Swiss products but for some reason, are currently carrying a few items from Sardinia, including an excellent olive oil and pane carasau, on which I soon will wax poetic in a future post. It's basically a thin cracker bread, perfect for Italian deli meat and cheese. You probably won't think it's that special. But I spent a week in Sardinia in May and I think I'm in love. I also bought a beet pesto from here and it was tasty and made my pasta such a pretty purple color.

the specialty Italian product wall inside Berg und Tal

pane carasau in its box

lots of pane carasau for my big appetite

The Pie Shop. They sell clotted cream, enough said. Now I can have a proper tea party. They had some meat pies too that I want to try next time.

The British Cheese Centre. Darn good cheddar and lots of it. The very friendly shopkeeper will pull out a novelty sized map and show you where in the UK the various cheddars come from.

The Pie Shop and The British Cheese Centre share a space

Queen of Cakes. We had a vanilla cake swirled with raspberry jam with raspberry cream topping, slightly more muffin than cake but very tasty. The British owner was very friendly. I think they mostly do catering business, but she visits the Markthalle a couple times a week.

simply pretty Queen of Cakes

My son and I shared because I couldn't justify 12CHF on two cupcakes after all the other crazy stuff I bought that day. We inhaled this sweetie in less than a minute and I wished I had another.

Ostbuffet. I was intrigued by their "salzigstrudel" and based on that, I want to go back and try everything else.

I took a chance on this "Salzigstrudel" from Ostbuffet. It was delicious! I'd go back just to eat this.

8 comments:

I'd be willing to try it, but I have very low expectations based on friends negative reviews. I heard Zen in Adliswil has good dim sum, but only has dim sum carts for Sunday brunch. I really miss eating Char Siu Bao and Lo Mai Gai.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that haven't been to the new Viadukt yet, despite having driven by amany many times - oops :-) Right now I a busy swimming and munching on pane carasau and slurping gelato while visiting my family in Sardinia ;-) I definitely want to go there before summer is over, especially after this excellent post about it!

On another note, could you suggest an andouille substitute?? I've been living is Switzerland since April & I miss making (especially eating...) jambalaya & etouffe. Thanks.Danielle Hebertfrom Miami, FL living in AG

Hi Danielle. I have a vague memory of seeing Andouille sausage once, but it was probably the French version, which I've read is milder and not exactly like the Cajun version. I've read that kielbasa is a good substitute, but I don't know where to get that either. Sorry I can't be of more help. I'll be on the lookout and hopefully one of us will find it soon.